


Do I Know You?

by Thaiser



Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-14
Updated: 2013-03-17
Packaged: 2017-11-29 06:49:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/684065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thaiser/pseuds/Thaiser
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gamzee and Tavros have been penpals/internet buddies for the past five years, Tavros is human, Gamzee is a troll, and now it's finally time to meet face to face for the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Tavros felt anxious, and jittery, but that was okay right? after all, this was a huge moment, sure he knew Gamzee, he would even dare claim that they knew each other very well.

they had been penpals for several years after all, five years was a very long time when you’re only eighteen, and through out those five years the two of them had been like peas in a pod, best friends from the very first moment, they had always gotten along well.

surely meeting in person would not change any of that, sure, Gamzee was a troll and all, but it had never been a problem that he was a troll and Tavros wasn’t, it had never mattered.

then again, meeting in person and sending each other messages over the internet were hardly the same thing.

for some reason neither of them had ever thought to send the other a simple picture, appearances had never been a concern when it came to their relationship, they had god awful rap battles and they played games online together, they did most everything together, every time one of them found some new and awesome feature of the vast rainbow colored and sprinkle bedazzled plane of existence that was the internet, it was immediately shared with the other.

but they had spent the last two months planning this visit, they would finally meet face to face, mind you, they had always wanted to, but Tavros was a perfectly normal human boy who lived a perfectly normal peaceful life on Earth, and Gamzee was, well, Gamzee was a troll, a troll who lived on a planet in a neighboring solar system, the trolls called it Alternia, it was their homeworld.

they had several other colonies on other planets, and they were much farther ahead in terms of technology, they had even figured out how to create machines from organic materials.

but most trolls were none the less born on the homeworld, Tavros had always figured that it was probably out of a sense of tradition or something that most trolls returned to Alternia when they were ready to have little ones.

trolls were hermaphrodites, and though they did trend towards some being more masculine or feminine than others, and generally adopted a human gender pronoun so they would mesh more effectively with human society, their system of reproduction was still completely different from the human one.

Tavros wasn’t entirely sure how the whole process worked but he had heard a lot of things about how they laid eggs that hatched into some sort of troll larvae.

it all sounded very weird and well, alien, to Tavros. but trolls were aliens, they were allowed to be different, it would be very, very weird if they were the same as humans after all.

as it was, it was a miracle that the two species were even remotely similar, they could even learn to speak each others languages, in fact Tavros initially became Gamzee’s penpal because Gamzee needed someone with whom he could practice his english, it had worked well, most of the time Tavros didn’t even consider that they weren’t the same species, or even from the same planet.

it wasn’t until now, when it had finally been decided and Gamzee was going to come to Earth and live with him for a while, that Tavros had begun to consider Gamzee’s origins, and what it could potentially mean for their friendship.

they had not yet decided when Gamzee would be going back home, they had just figured that he could take a ship back when they got tired of each other, or other duties called.

and that was what had led Tavros here, sitting on a bench at one of the airports for the spaceships that regularly traveled between Earth and Alternia.

trolls had made contact with humans just twenty years ago, his mother still told him stories of how they had all been staring intently at the TV when the trollian ambassadors and negotiators had finally landed to converse with the human leaders regarding the terms of an inter planetary allegiance.

trolls were not yet a common sight, particularly all the way out on the country side where Tavros had lived his entire life, born and raised on that damn ranch in the middle of nowhere.

to this day he had not yet seen a troll up close, it had always been from afar or in pictures on the TV or internet.

Tavros was understandably nervous, he was not only going to meet with an alien life form for the first time in his life, he was meeting with his best friend in the entire universe for the very first time ever.

his legs were shaking, and his stomach wouldn’t stop doing back flips, he kept clenching and unclenching his hands as he looked up at the huge clock mounted on the wall of the foyer, five minutes, he would be landing in just five minutes, he looked out of the window again, he had been staring back and forth between the landing pad and the clock.

two minutes, just two more minutes.

his hands felt sweaty, would that be okay? did trolls even shake hands? what if Gamzee had a really thick accent, and they wouldn’t be able to understand each other properly?

so many possibilities raced through the young mans mind, accompanied by not nearly enough answers.

he looked back up at the clock, he should be landing right about now.

sure enough, just as Tavros was starting to think that maybe they had been delayed, the shuttle landed and after a moment a myriad of both trolls and humans flowed in a big stream from the interstellar vehicle towards the warmth of the entrance halls.

Tavros suddenly realized that he did not have the faintest clue as to what Gamzee might look like, he had made a sign with his name on it, he just hoped Gamzee would see it and come over on his own, Tavros couldn’t exactly go looking for him.

when the mismatch crowd of huge grey and orange trolls, walking calmly in their odd almost fluidly smooth manner amongst a slightly smaller group of considerably shorter and more hurried humans entered the through the doors of the hall, the groups finally started to disperse slowly into increasingly smaller groups as each went off in their own direction.

eventually the crowd dwindled till it numbered only a few members, most of whom sat down to wait on nearby benches like Tavros was, only a few looked around as if searching, he tried in vain to see if maybe he would be able to somehow recognize his long time friend now that there were considerably fewer around him but of course to no avail.

it wasn’t until one of the larger trolls of the group, probably some eight feet tall, with huge horns, and teeth that seemed to be way too big for his mouth, started to slowly and almost tentatively wander over towards Tavros and seemed to take a long look at his sign, that Tavros started to feel like the moment in which their very first meeting would take place was finally approaching.

the young troll looked up after carefully examining his sign from a discrete distance, his face broke out into a hopeful smile and he started to gently jog his way over towards Tavros, the huge dufflebag hanging on a strap around his broad shoulders bouncing and swinging.

“hey motherfucker, you Tavros Nitram?” a deep scratching voice that could have come from nowhere except deepest depths of the positively huge trolls long throat.

“yeah!” Tavros stuttered out quickly, and in hind sight perhaps a bit too loudly.

“great! well, I’m Gamzee” the gigantic troll smiled widely at him partly excited and partly anxious, only now did he realize just how purple the other mans eyes were, and how sharp his teeth looked when he opened his mouth, not to mention how huge his claws were even when he was just calmly gesticulating as one does.

he looked like a predator, all trolls did, Tavros had known that beforehand, trolls originated on a planet with a lot of predators, they needed to be able to defend themselves at all times, still, it was somehow startling to finally look up at a creature that could technically rip his throat out in a split second, and think of him as the caring friend he had been so close to for years on end.

they made hesitant and somewhat awkward conversation on their way to his car, Gamzee’s dufflebag was big enough that it took up so much space they could not fit it into the trunk and decided to just toss it onto the back seat instead, after a few jokes and a little scrambling to get the seat lowered and slid back far enough that Gamzee himself could get into the car in the first place, conversation flowed a lot easier.

during the drive to his apartment he could finally begin to really recognize his old friend, it was good, and though some part of him still jumped when Gamzee gave him a particularly wide smile, he could not help but think that maybe, just maybe, this entire different species thing, wasn’t such a big deal after all.


	2. Chapter 2

Tavros had to be careful and remind Gamzee to move his knee when he changed gears, not to mention be sure to drive slowly over speed bumps and potholes lest his new/old friend bang his head into the ceiling.

His seat was already practically horizontal with the floor of the car, and even now, as they drove along out of the airport parking lot, Tavros still couldn't help but cringe when his beaten little car bumbled and bounced a little too roughly, when they finally made it out of the complicated maze of road obstacles and wayward roundabouts Tavros could finally breathe easy again.

well, he could, until he heard Gamzee's crackling laughter over to his right.

"Damn bro, you look like you seen one a them ghosts, I mean, I know this tiny little vehicle of yours don't offer much motherfucking protecting but, wow brother!, you need to slam a cold one and just chill 'fore ya bloodpusher all up and malfunctions on yo ass"

Tavros distantly wondered what he meant by cold one, and bloodpusher.

Never mind, shaking his head lightly he turned towards Gamzee for just a second to respond,  
"Sorry, I guess I'm just nervous about hurting you, I mean, your horns are, well, practically scraping the roof"

Gamzee craned his neck back curiously, trying to get a good look at the upholstered car roof above his head, "oh yeah, I see it now bro" he pointed a single clawed finger at a tattered spot just inside his range of sight, "in fact I think I might have gotten my destruction on right here".

Tavros turned around carefully, peeking at the indicated hole in the roof of his car, Gamzee had already been quick to stick his finger in it and plug it back up again, or worsen it, Tavros couldn't quite tell.

"It, it's okay, this was uh, never a very expensive car anyway", he thought about it for a moment before speaking up again "in fact it was pretty cheap".

Gamzee hmm'ed and nodded vaguely, well, as much as he could with his head only inches from the roof.

"It didn't... hurt, did it?", Tavros inquired timidly, he still wasn't quite sure if he really wanted to know the answer.

"Nah bro, it stung a tiny bit but this brother has had much worse than a little scratch like that", Gamzee waved him off absently, his long fingers practically batting at Tavros' little button nose.

Tavros leaned back a little in his seat, a broad smile finding its way onto his face, he relaxed for a second or two, and then took one hand off the steering wheel to dart at his friends side, poking him straight in the ribs in defiant retaliation.

Gamzee let out a barking guffaw of indignation and held a hand to his afflicted side, looking over at Tavros with unbelieving eyes he then broke into a playful bout of chuckling, sneaking his own fingers over to the other mans own ribs, tickling him gently over his soft cotton shirt with the tips of his claws.

Tavros nearly died, of all the things that could have come of his playful impulse, he had certainly not expected a full blown effort of retaliation, he laughed and giggled breathlessly trying hard not to swerve into the other lane, eyes on the road Tavros, eyes on the road, he reminded himself, despite his sudden urge to launch himself across the car and respond to this obvious declaration of a tickle war, he still had to keep the car on the road.

The poor cars roof was practically a scene from a slasher movie by now, he could see strips of fabric dangling in his peripheral vision now, he didn't really care though, he always thought that the yellowed golden brown patches and splotches it had acquired during its years with a previous owner, who despite the egregious amounts of evidence otherwise, insisted that he had never smoked in the car, were pretty damn hideous, they had to go at some point, might as well be now.

Gamzee blew a strand of ceiling out of his face "damn bro, your roofs not looking like its been feeling the miracles much lately" he pointed out with a slight laugh.

Tavros turned to look "well no, not really, in fact I think I can see a little of the chassis now" he added without thinking "it's nothing to worry about though, I'm sure my mechanic can, uhm, fix it"

"Sorry" Gamzee frowned dejectedly.

If Tavros had snapped his head around any faster his neck would surely have broken "no no! It's okay, I, well, I, never liked the uhm, color! anyway, heh! so, so don't worry about it okay?" he placed a gently reassuring hand on Gamzee's bony shoulder hesitantly.

He twisted his neck to look at it slowly "uh, don't you need to be all up and watching the road my brother?"

Tavros nearly screamed, he had been slowly drifting into the opposite lane, and he hadn't even noticed, "yeah! I'll, I'll just, watch it now" he muttered sheepishly quickly moving his hand back onto the steering wheel, back to its rightful place, and righted the car hurriedly, then breathed out shakily, close call, real close.


End file.
